Kansas natives Unmerciful released their first full length album, the awesomely titled Unmercifully Beaten, way back in 2006. After picking it up and listening to it many times over, I knew this would be a band to keep an eye out for. Well that eye (or both) ended up going to sleep, as these guys […]
Hatebreed’s last album, The Divinity of Purpose, was a very hit or miss output for me (with more misses than hits), that made it the only one of their albums that I did not purchase. Still wary from that last full length I came into their new one a bit apprehensive to say the least, […]
Damnit, damnit, damnit Abnormality… why did you have to go this route?!? After 2012’s PHENOMENAL Contaminating the Hive Mind (which made my year end top albums list), which one of you decided that mailing in a snooze-worthy, by the numbers brutal death metal album was a good idea? And after being signed to Metal Blade […]
Murder Made God came to my attention with their first album, Irreverence, that was a nice little diamond in the rough that I came across in 2013 and ended up on my top ten list that year. It was a killer brutal slam/tech death album that got many spins in the ‘ol CD player. So […]
Every time a new Aborted album comes around, I can liken it to another output from Napalm Death, in which the question inevitably gets asked: these dudes have been around forever, can they still bring the pain with the same piss ‘n vinegar of previous outputs? I can say that for Retrogore the answer is […]
As an uncompromising, grindcore-to-the-bone band that has been going strong for over 20 years, Rotten Sound would definitely be placed on my personal “Mount Rushmore of Grind”, along with Nasum, Napalm Death and Pig Destroyer. We’ve had to wait five long years since their last LP, but time has done nothing but help as their […]
Venomous Concept is a side project of some pretty big names in the metal world: Shane Embury and Danny Herrera from this little know band Napalm Death, are joined by John Cooke (live guitarist for ND), bassist Dan Lilker (way too many band to mention) and vocalist Kevin Sharp (Lock Up, ex-Brutal Truth). I […]
Deformatory is a band that caught my eye a few years ago, as their debut album, In the Wake of Pestilence, was a must-buy brutal death album the minute I heard it. For the first LP in a band’s career, that one far exceeded expectations. So when I heard that they were coming out with […]
When I first fired up the (at the time) self-released album from New Jersey tech-death quartet Dystrophy, I was blown away by the first track “Apex”. Sporting a very well done Gorguts/Ulcerate impersonation, that first track actually reminded me very much of my favorite track “Forgotten Arrows” from Gorguts’ last album. It had the haunting, […]
Yes folks, you read that right – GOREPUNCH. The endless use of the word “gore” somewhere in a band’s name just never ceases to amaze me. This one is either referring to a special brand of drink, or an especially metal form of striking someone with your fist. The moniker aside, what we have is […]
Speed… speed… and more SPEEEEEEEDDDDD!!! That’s what you should expect out of the 3rd LP from this Italian brutal death metal quintet. They want to play as fast as possible, and fast they most definitely can do. I remember this band from their last full length, Degenerating Anthropophagical Euphoria, which was a good album, […]
Any fan of hardcore knows the name All Out War, but you can be forgiven if you haven’t heard their name in a while. After belting out 3 straight LPs from 2003-2010, the band has been relatively silent since then. Well the wait is over, as nearly the whole lineup from 1998’s For Those Who […]
I remember Prion from hearing their last full length, Impressions, way back in 2008. It was a solid death metal album, and since then these guys had kind of fallen off my radar; though we had to wait seven years for another album, it was worth the wait for this one. Boasting the same original […]
Having Dysentery rules! Said no one ever… Well, that is unless you’re talking about owning the new album from the aptly named slam death quartet from Massachusetts. This is their third full length album, and any fan of the slam death genre (one of my favorites), has no doubt heard of them. If not, then […]
Wait… what the hell is this? A brutal death metal band that actually has… a BASS GUITAR?!? One that you can feel? And even the drums have a bit of pop to them? WTF?!? Yes, I can honestly say I was pleasantly surprised when the new Coathanger Abortion (CA) had all of the above. As […]
So if a member of Decrepit Birth (Chase Frasier) decided to go off and have some fun with a side project, take a guess what it would sound like? And what if he recruited the guitarist from Arkaik (Ivan Mungia)? If you guessed it would be a head-churning, riff-filled, 200 mph tech-death punch to the throat, […]
Just when you think a band has thought of all the ways to use the word gor(e), along comes yet another new iteration that will surprise you, this one by way of the band Gorgatron and their late 2014 second album, Inner Supremacy. Now at first I thought it was a long lost member of […]
Dear All That Remains: We are writing this letter with heavy hearts, as we regret to inform you that your membership in The Metal Community, LLC is being terminated as of February 24, 2015. The main issue lies in the fact that your last two albums (including the current one) have been a flat out […]
2014 was a banner year for the Unique Leader label, which happens to be one of my personal favorites. With releases from the likes of Fallujah, Inanimate Existence and Omnihility (which all made my year end list), they further cemented their place at the top of the heap for the label with the best and […]
I absolutely love brutal death metal, but after going through this record no less than 20 times, I’m struggling a bit with how to approach it. Does it check all the boxes? Guttural vocals? Check. Double bass and blast beats? Check. Lack of any real bass guitar or bottom end in the mix? Check. The […]
Job For a Cowboy has been quite the polarizing band in their relatively short 10 year career. They rocketed to the top of the deathcore genre very early on, and gained likely as many fans as they did haters during said rise. I really liked and own their first EP, Doom, as well as the […]
Coming out of left field (well, Sweden) is the second album from Gormathon, a band I had never heard of but has provided me with an early Christmas present, as this album is absolutely phenomenal and easily one of the best I have heard all year. Pulling all the best elements from power, thrash, melodic […]
“Aliencore” eh? That’s what the band has jokingly called their deathcore/death metal style, and after listening a few times it actually does seem to fit (and of course everyone knows we needed another sub-genre in the metal world). If you took Beneath the Massacre and Obscura and mixed them together with every Atari game ever […]
If you ain’t gonna reinvent the wheel, then you might as well slap some nice rims on that bitch. That, my friends, is exactly what Septycal Gorge have done with their latest release Scourge of the Formless Breed. Septycal Gorge is a band I’d recognized from their first LP that I own, Growing Seeds of […]
Unique Leader, one of my favorite labels, has smashed yet another home run. The sophomore album by California tech-death metallers Inanimate Existence is an absolutely stunning effort on every level. After going through this album a few times, what struck me the most is the dense, ambient, dare I say beautiful (!) song structures and […]